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The New New Quote Thread
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antsamthompson9
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Shelby Kelley asked on the Barretta Brothers episode with Ryan Dillon: "Is there a certain weight that comes with performing a character that has so much history attached to it? Ryan with Elmo, Bill with Rowlf."
Ryan: It's hard, it took me a really long time to accept that you're not that other performer, I'm never gonna be Kevin, so you have to hope that what you're doing still works, and you just don't know it until you try stuff. And I have to say your Rowlf is really wonderful. It's just so warm and he's one of my absolute favorite characters, at the Hollywood Bowl and O2, the number you did, I've Been Everywhere, that was so much fun.
Bill Barretta: See, I don't think I do a very good voice impersonation, and I think that's part of the thing, if you can access some of the essence of the character and what the original person brought to it, the energy, the heart of it, the perspective, I think if you can do that, I mean your Elmo voice is phenomenal and you're technically amazing, but I think it's unusual, it's not an easy thing to try and capture the essence of a character, although people will always go "It doesn't sound like I remember." And then you have to start putting some of yourself into it over time. You've been doing it how long now, 8 years?
Ryan: It's been a while, and it took a while for me to be okay with that too, there's that feeling of "You have to be by the book." But the longer you do that, the more it really does become an impression. And people can feel it, even if it's subconscious, they can feel a falseness.
Gene Barretta: Is there a point with both of you, where you say "I just have to say screw it, I'm doing the best I can, and I imagine that the people who preceded me would want me to take that path and just say be my own performer and take it that way"?
Bill: I suppose, I don't know what Jim would say, but I think at some point, you have to let the stuff go and think about it as a character that you perform, you have to just take on the character and not think that you're doing someone else's character, even though you know it, and you're always respectful of that, I think because these characters were created by someone else, just like a character that I've created, I have to find the comfort in that, so that I'm not thinking and worried and all that stuff that is a distraction from the work.
Ryan: Yeah, I think people can feel you thinking when you're performing, they can feel this insecurity, or being uncomfortable. And the first couple years of Elmo, it very much was that, cause you get to a point where you're just like, and at some point you do say, I did anyway, "I can't be him exactly, as much as I try I can't do it". And then you start to find avenues that may or may not work and you dial it back or you bring certain elements up, and for me a lot of that happened with press stuff, because you're winging it, and you don't have anybody telling you exactly what he wants to say, you have to trust yourself.
Bill: But also the fact that we're working next to people who experienced those people and know them or we got to know them. It's the workshop people, the puppeteers, the directors, the crew, all these people who witnessed it and experienced it and felt it, that's who you're getting things from too.
Ryan: Especially with Sesame because it's the same people, those people have been there forever, Frankie Biondo and all these people, they've seen it all, so when you get them to go, "All right, that's close", then you feel like you're doing something.
Ryan: It's hard, it took me a really long time to accept that you're not that other performer, I'm never gonna be Kevin, so you have to hope that what you're doing still works, and you just don't know it until you try stuff. And I have to say your Rowlf is really wonderful. It's just so warm and he's one of my absolute favorite characters, at the Hollywood Bowl and O2, the number you did, I've Been Everywhere, that was so much fun.
Bill Barretta: See, I don't think I do a very good voice impersonation, and I think that's part of the thing, if you can access some of the essence of the character and what the original person brought to it, the energy, the heart of it, the perspective, I think if you can do that, I mean your Elmo voice is phenomenal and you're technically amazing, but I think it's unusual, it's not an easy thing to try and capture the essence of a character, although people will always go "It doesn't sound like I remember." And then you have to start putting some of yourself into it over time. You've been doing it how long now, 8 years?
Ryan: It's been a while, and it took a while for me to be okay with that too, there's that feeling of "You have to be by the book." But the longer you do that, the more it really does become an impression. And people can feel it, even if it's subconscious, they can feel a falseness.
Gene Barretta: Is there a point with both of you, where you say "I just have to say screw it, I'm doing the best I can, and I imagine that the people who preceded me would want me to take that path and just say be my own performer and take it that way"?
Bill: I suppose, I don't know what Jim would say, but I think at some point, you have to let the stuff go and think about it as a character that you perform, you have to just take on the character and not think that you're doing someone else's character, even though you know it, and you're always respectful of that, I think because these characters were created by someone else, just like a character that I've created, I have to find the comfort in that, so that I'm not thinking and worried and all that stuff that is a distraction from the work.
Ryan: Yeah, I think people can feel you thinking when you're performing, they can feel this insecurity, or being uncomfortable. And the first couple years of Elmo, it very much was that, cause you get to a point where you're just like, and at some point you do say, I did anyway, "I can't be him exactly, as much as I try I can't do it". And then you start to find avenues that may or may not work and you dial it back or you bring certain elements up, and for me a lot of that happened with press stuff, because you're winging it, and you don't have anybody telling you exactly what he wants to say, you have to trust yourself.
Bill: But also the fact that we're working next to people who experienced those people and know them or we got to know them. It's the workshop people, the puppeteers, the directors, the crew, all these people who witnessed it and experienced it and felt it, that's who you're getting things from too.
Ryan: Especially with Sesame because it's the same people, those people have been there forever, Frankie Biondo and all these people, they've seen it all, so when you get them to go, "All right, that's close", then you feel like you're doing something.
MikaelaMuppet
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Alan Parrish: Jumanji. A game for those who seek to find a way to leave their world behind. You roll the dice to move your token. Doubles gets another turn. And the first player to reach the end wins.
antsamthompson9
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Brian Henson looks at the Christmas Scat scene in MCC for a AFI video last month: I kinda love this scene for many reasons. To start with, I love the way Steve Whitmire scatted the song, which was very similar to the way my dad would sing, the way he swung the whole melody of "Tis the season to be jolly and joyous."
"It all started when I was ni-ane . . . Daddy took me to the barbershop for a haircut, he told the barber to give me a regular boy haircut . . . but I didn't want a regular boy haircut . . . I wasn't A REGULAR BOY!! I was anything but REGULAR!!" ~ The Red Guy
At Felix and Gloria's second wedding. . . .
MURRAY: Hey Felix, how come Gloria isn't wearing white?
FELIX: Murray . . . Gloria is the mother of two children.
MURRAY: Oh, I see . . . I guess it's hard to keep things white with kids around.
MURRAY: Hey Felix, how come Gloria isn't wearing white?
FELIX: Murray . . . Gloria is the mother of two children.
MURRAY: Oh, I see . . . I guess it's hard to keep things white with kids around.